Country down with unusual power crisis
Rise of demand, poor gas supply lead to load shedding
Staff Correspondent
The country is facing an unusual winter-time power load shedding of 300 to 500 megawatt every day mainly because of maintenance work in a large number of power generation units and also due to shortfall of gas supply.According to the Power Development Board (PDB), load shedding was 300 MW yesterday, 476 MW on Monday and 297 MW on Sunday. Last week's load shedding records show a similar trend. PDB records show that 17 smaller and medium sized power units remained shut yesterday due to maintenance work. On Monday, gas supply shortage caused a power generation shortfall of 120 MW. The country's demand for power usually decreases considerably during the winter. This is why the PDB prefers to undertake plant maintenance work in this season. But this year the winter-time demand shows an upward trend. The PDB said yesterday's demand for 3500 MW of power is quite high and it indicates a much higher demand in the coming summer. But the country does not have adequate new power projects to meet the higher demand, which can shoot up to 4,400 MW to 4,800 MW this year. As in the previous years, the government is now considering some load management measures, which include shutting down shopping arcades in the evening when the peak demand for power becomes unmanageable. "Our daily power demand fluctuates sharply. Power demand in the evening doubles that in the morning. If we can reduce such fluctuations, may be we can serve the people better," said a power ministry source. If load management measures can be implemented, it will lessen the peak time power consumption in the evening by 400 to 500 MW, greatly reducing load shedding, the source said. The power ministry last week discussed a proposal of the Power Cell in this regard and decided to hold a series of motivational meetings with stakeholders to make load management measures work. Last year, when the power ministry imposed some load management measures like shutting down shopping malls in the evening, it received a serious negative response. This is why this time the ministry plans to discuss the measures first. One of the ideas for load management is rationing power supply to different commercial consumers like shopping malls and markets in the evening. This can be implemented by dividing Dhaka into seven zones and stagger the rationing for one zone a day per week. "This way the markets will also find the idea acceptable," said a senior official. Another idea is to encourage use of efficient electrical appliances in the country. "We will soon start holding meetings with the stakeholders, demonstrating the ideas and benefits of load management," he added.
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